


A Theory of Adventure

by Konoha



Category: Kagerou Project, Mekakucity Actors
Genre: Amusement Parks, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-23
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-20 13:24:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,394
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1512179
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Konoha/pseuds/Konoha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ayano was planning on going to the amusement park alone, but for some strange reason Shintaro decided to tag along.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Theory of Adventure

**Author's Note:**

> Ahh I love amusement parks (｡’▽’｡)♡ They're so lovely, don't you think? 
> 
> Let's just say this is a slight AU without the whole "incident" with Ayano happening, when Shintaro, Takane, Ayano and Haruka were all classmates living under one tatara sun. 
> 
> Even though I read somewhere that Shintaro was emotionally distant since he was little, I still like to think Ayano was like the one person he tended to open up to. Hence why this is mostly fluff imsosorry

Shintaro didn't have a single clue why he agreed to this. He didn't even _like_ roller coasters. In fact, it was safe to say he _hated_   them. So why was it, then, that he had offered to go with the clueless girl who he sat next to in class? He gazed up at the clouds from his spot on the bench in the shade of the trees,  a flood of warm memories enveloping him.

 

* * *

 

"So, everyone, I think it's safe to say that this year is just about wrapped up," their homeroom teacher called over the excited whispers and constant pen-tapping on the desks. The energy in the classroom was quickly rising, along with the volume level. Shintaro folded his arms on the desk and buried his face in them in an attempt to block out the noise, and from beside him he heard the quiet giggle he knew so well.

A piece of crumpled paper made its way onto his desk and he lifted his head and reached over to grab it. When he flattened the paper out, he immediately realized it was a note from Ayano. There in her neat handwriting read, "Summer plans ?" with the doodle of some anime heroine beside it. Expecting there to be more, Shintaro turned the paper over and saw the remnants of a test grade, 67. He quickly turned it over again, looking back at her.

"I'm sitting right beside you, you know." his voice sounds annoyed, but he knows she doesn't take it personally. He turns to her and makes eye contact.

"It _did_ get your attention," Ayano smiles, covering her mouth with her scarlet scarf, "You wouldn't have looked at me otherwise."

Shintaro breaks the eye contact and gazes away, even though he feels Ayano's eyes still on him. She sighs, and even without looking at her he can tell she's probably smiling to herself.

"No," he mumbles quietly, "I'm not doing anything."

"Oh," Ayano replies, "I'm planning on going to an amusement park in a few weeks." 

The simple mention of "amusement park" sends a shiver down Shintaro's spine, as he remembers the terrors he faced as a child when Momo insisted on riding every single ride and he was dragged along. He thinks of changing the subject, but accidentally blurts out, "With who?"

"With who?" Ayano repeats, slightly laughing, "I always go by myself, I haven't gone with anyone in a very long while."

"What about Haruka? Takane?" Shintaro suggests, turning to look back at her. Ayano's eyes were fixed on the desk as if it was the most interesting thing in the world. "I know they're both going to be doing something during the same time," she answers without looking up.

"I'll go." he says without thinking. The second he realizes his mistake, it's too late. Ayano's staring at him now, her eyes lit up like the sun in the morning sky. She basically jumps out of her seat in her excitement, and Shintaro has to admit he's never seen her this excited before. 

"Well, I just realiz—" 

"You'll go?" Ayano cuts him off, her gaze never leaving his face, "You'll really go?"

Shintaro sighs, feeling defeated. Then, finally,

"I'll go."

* * *

 

The sound of a twig snapping brings him back to reality, and once his eyes refocus he's met with the warm smile of Ayano walking over to him. She's wearing that red scarf as usual, paired with a pretty casual outfit of a white blouse and black skirt. Her sandals are a bright ruby color, sort of matching her scarf. He's rarely seen her without it, Shintaro notes.

"Did I keep you waiting?" Ayano says once she's in talking distance. "I thought we were going to meet at this time...?"

"I left early," Shintaro simply replied, "I didn't want Momo tagging along today."

"Oh right, she might interrupt this date." Ayano states, and she tries to hold back a giggle when Shintaro turns away sharply, the tips of his ears turning red.

"This isn't — no, wait, I didn't—" he mumbles, and finally Ayano can't hold it in anymore and begins to laugh.

"I was kidding," she says between breaths and pokes his side, "C'mon, let's go!"  She takes hold of his wrist and pulls him along, hearing him grumble and complain behind her. Even so, he still complies and lets her pull him.

* * *

 The moment they got past the entrance gate, Shintaro thought he was going to faint. The amusement park had some of the tallest rides he had ever seen, and he was pretty sure Ayano was going to drag him on at least half of them. 

"What do you wanna do first?" the girl said, cheerfully coming to a halt by a fountain in the middle of the park. Shintaro came up next to her, gazing into the water.

"We'll do whatever you want to do," he says, trying to keep from looking at the reflection of the rides, "You decide."

"Oh, in that case," Ayano grinned, reaching for Shintaro's wrist again, "I think I wanna go on the thrill rides first!"

Shintaro paled. _Great_. The brunette took hold of him and headed to one of the notably taller rides, Shintaro in tow. There weren't that many people in that particular line, so they only had to wait for a few minutes before it was their turn to board.

"Can we sit in the front?" Ayano asked, already moving towards the front of the seats. Realizing he didn't really have much of a choice, Shintaro dragged himself to the seat beside her, desperately wishing he was dead. A lap and arm bar came down and secured them in place, and he clung onto them the first chance he got. Next to him Ayano was softly singing, "Now listen close, hear this secret for you, and so the sun sets on a day fun and new..."

"Ayano."

"Yes?" she replied, stopping in her singing. She turned her head to look at him, and all at once the ride began to move.

"If I don't make it..." he began, his nails digging into the security bar. Ayano began to laugh, her hair already beginning to move due to the wind.

"This is a kiddie ride, of course you'll make it!" 

Just as Shintaro was about to retort, he realized they were at the top of the hill before the drop. Before he could even blink they were shooting down at speeds that seemed impossible. He let out a scream of terror while Ayano just laughed, tears coming to her eyes. 

"Shintaro, open your eyes!" she giggled, turning her head slightly to look at him.

"Don't talk, don't talk, don't talk," He repeated, his eyes firmly shut. He realized he probably screamed about twenty times already, and the ride was only half over.

 After about a minute Ayano spoke again, soothingly, "The rides over, you know."

He opened his eyes to take a quick peak and realized that it had indeed stopped. The security bar was released and Shintaro let out a breath he didn't realize he had been holding. He sighed and got up, Ayano doing the same. They didn't speak until they had walked past the exit, Ayano waving at the workers who were smiling at her.

"Wasn't that exciting?" Ayano chimed, and Shintaro hesitantly avoided her eyes. Part of him felt dizzy.  "You sounded like you were about to die, though. You okay?" He stumbled a bit forward and she caught him by the hand, pulling him back towards her. "Shintaro? Hey, Shintaro?"

"I'm fine," he grumbled, swaying a bit. 

"You don't like thrill rides, do you?" He shook his head and Ayano sighed,  "You could have just told me."

"I wanted you to have fun," Shintaro muttered, and regretted it the second he said it. That was always the case with Ayano, he said things that were on his mind without thinking.  Her cheeks turned a light pink and she used her scarf to hide it.

"Just having you here is fun," she mumbled back, realizing she was still holding his hand. He seemed to notice too, but neither of them did anything about it. After a moment she lowered her scarf with her free hand and smiled up at him. "Do you just want to walk around then?" When he eagerly nodded, she couldn't help but let out a quiet laugh. "Okay then, let's go see what we can find." 

As they walked around the park, Ayano spotted a darts booth nearby. She motioned towards it with her free hand, and Shintaro nodded. The duo made their way over, Ayano always a step ahead. 

"Oh Miss, would you and your boyfriend like to play?" the worker said to them, "Its only five to play, prizes are pretty neat."

"We're not—" they started at the same time, and Shintaro pulled away his hand to shove it in his pocket in embarrassment. "We're not dating," he said in a level voice, "but I'll play." He handed the worker some money and picked up a dart, aiming and shooting it perfectly at a balloon. It popped. He wordlessly did the same with two other darts, trying not to smirk at Ayano's stare of amazement.

"Well that's... good aim!" the worker tried to say cheerfully, but even Shintaro could tell he was amazed. The man stepped aside to give them a better view of the prizes. "What would you like?"

Shintaro motioned Ayano to pick. "Are you sure?" she asked him, and when he didn't reply she pointed to a stuffed rabbit which had a white carnation on it's right ear. The worker handed it over to her and smiled. 

"Come again!" he waved to them as they walked away.

 "You're amazing!" Ayano blurted as soon as they were out of earshot, "How did you learn how to aim so well?"

"When Momo was younger she and I would get into waterballoon fights," Shintaro explained as he looked up to the clouds, "She would always drag me into them, and after a while I guess I got tired of ending up soaked." 

When they passed a cotton candy stand he stopped to order some, a blue one for himself and a pink one for Ayano. The young girl moved around restlessly, playing with the stuffed rabbit in her arms. Shintaro gave her a questioning stare, but she just smiled up at him. Once they got their sweet desserts and began to walk, the rabbit slipped from Ayano's grasp. She caught one of the paws and looked up, only to see that Shintaro had caught the other one. They held it between them the similar way that some parents hold the hands of a child and kept walking around the park, both sort of lost in their own separate thoughts.

* * *

 

The hours seemed to tick on by. With various food breaks, stand games, and one haunted house experience that ended up in a lot of screaming and shoving, it was safe to say the both of them were thoroughly exhausted. 

"Ayano, let's go home," Shintaro said as the light from the sunset leaked past the evening clouds. As they started walking, Shintaro oh-not-so-secretly reached her her hand and interlocked her fingers with his. Seeing as how she didn't pull away, he didn't either. They walked in a comfortable silence until they reached the place where they had met up that morning.

"...Did you have fun?" Shintaro asked her suddenly. Ayano nodded, cheerfully adjusting her scarf as it slipped off her shoulders.

"You never take that off, do you?" he smiled, reaching over to help her fix it. She giggled softly and held up the rabbit in front of her face. 

"I could say the same about you, even in midsummer you never take that red jacket off,"  she smiled,  "It suits you."

"Was that you talking or the rabbit?" Shintaro mumbled, scratching the back of his neck with his hand. One of his nervous habits.

"I... haven't had fun like that in a long while," Ayano said suddenly, her gaze downcast, "Thank you for coming with me Shintaro, and for winning this for me."

"It was nothing," he replied quietly, "I actually enjoyed myself."

"This reminds me of Tono," she whispered, referring to Shintaro's pet rabbit, "thats why I chose it."

"To think of my rabbit when you see it?"

"To think of you."

A silence came between them and all they could do was stare at eachother in the eyes. A crimson had spread over Ayano's cheeks and she matched her iconic scarf, while Shintaro could feel his face getting warmer by the second. 

Without thinking, Shintaro closed the space between them. He leaned over and placed a kiss upon Ayano's forehead. She simply rested her head on his chest and let out a hum of content. When he pulled away he tucked something behind her ear. She reached up to feel it but he gently grabbed her hand and placed a kiss on the back of it, closing his eyes and smiling against her hand.

"It's a pink carnation," he whispered, "It suits you." Stunned, Ayano quickly grabbed for her rabbit and removed the flower from it's ear. She reached up and placed it behind Shintaro's ear, taking care not to pull any of his hair in the process. When she was done she took a step back to look at him, and couldn't help but smile at how much it suited _him_. 

"We look like we just came from the jungle," Shintaro noted and laughed quietly to himself. Ayano joined in, and soon enough they were lost in their own little world, laughing about things that didn't even make that much of sense.

"It's getting late," Shintaro interrupted after a while, "let me walk you home."

"You don't have to do that," she quickly said, remembering he lived in the opposite direction, "It's alright." She knew he wasn't listening though, and when he took her hand and pulled her along with him she couldn't resist.

"That happiness ah how strange it is, the feeling," he was humming beside her, continuing her song from earlier. He wasn't looking at her, but he was smiling, something she saw him do a lot in the past day. 

"And as tomorrow breaks," she continued after him, "I hope you love it too."

**Author's Note:**

> Incase you guys don't know (which I'm pretty sure you don't aha) a pink carnation says "I'll always be there for you", while a white carnation symbolizes innocence and pure love. They're such sweet flowers, especially in spring.（*´▽｀*）
> 
> I hope you liked this story, I did my best writing it! I wonder, can you guess the song they were humming without looking the lyrics up? (*´ｪ｀*)


End file.
